MIT grad school from Georgia Tech/MIT undergrad

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
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<p>I already posted this in the MIT thread, but I'll post it here to get some more perspective:</p>

<p>Hi, I'm a high school senior trying to decide where to go next year. I've been accepted into MIT and Georgia Tech, and I'd like to go to MIT, but I'll have very cheap in state tuition plus substantial scholarships at Georgia Tech. My parents have pointed out that if I go to Georgia Tech, I'll have a lot of money left over for grad school, and I could go to MIT then if I don't go for undergrad. My question is, how hard is this to pull off? How many people go from Georgia Tech to MIT, and how well would I have to do there to have a reasonable chance of getting in? I don't want to miss out on getting to go to MIT, and I just want to see if I'm closing any doors by choosing to go to Georgia Tech first. Thanks!</p>

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<p>Please remember that only about 60% of the students that start at GT keep their Zell Miller scholarship after the first year. Remember you have to keep a 3.3 GPA. You maybe one of them but I wouldn’t discount MIT based on keeping the Zell Miller or even the regular Hope. How much money will you have left for grad school if say you lose Zell or Hope after 2 years and you have to pay in state tuition? I would run the numbers for if you lose after 1 year, 2 years or 3 years and see what it would look like.</p>

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<p>I have had several people tell my ds that unlike most schools that MIT’s #1 source for grad school is MIT. I’m not sure how true it is, but as time winds down and decisions need to be made, it is something we will be investigating.</p>

<p>As far as losing scholarships, only you know the rigor of your past academics and your actual ability to maintain GPA. If the academic challenge is leap from your current experience, it may well be a valid pt. if your background is one of top notch rigor and rising to the challenge, it might not be an issue needed to be weighed. (Though MITs pass grading as 1st semester freshman is a little daunting as well!)</p>

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<p>*left over for grad school, and I could go to MIT then if I don’t go for undergrad. My question is, how hard is this to pull off? How many people go from Georgia Tech to MIT, *</p>

<p>This is not a fair question. Admissions to grad programs is not like undergrad admissions. Each grad program is rather small, so admissions are extremely difficult. A particular grad program may only accept 10-20 student in a year. My son’s grad program at another elite school only accepted 16 students. (By the way, there was no pattern as to where the students came from…they came from MIT, Ivies, flagships and lesser known schools).</p>

<p>When my son was applying to grad school, even his “safeties” were only accepting 10%. His reaches were accepting 2-3%. You can’t count on any one particular school. And, thankfully, there isn’t just “one grad school” that is very good for whatever your interest is. </p>

<p>When programs are only accepting rather tiny numbers of students, to try to determine “how many are from GT” isn’t really fair. Grad programs don’t really care about undergrad name - they care about grades, coursework, GRE scores, research, and LORs.</p>

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<p>I’m Gatech class of 2013, currently studying in M.Eng program at UC Berkeley (mechanical engineering.)
It’s hard getting into grad schools. You want to have minimum of 3.5/4.0 GPA (assuming you want to do research.)
To get into MIT grad school, you’d probably need around 3.7~3.8/4.0 GPA. It’s hard to pull off, but it’s definitely possible as long as you study and take a few humanities (“easy”) courses.</p>

<p>I’ll give you a valuable advice, something I wish I’ve known back in 2010. When you apply to grad school, they don’t care where you come from. Just because you go to MIT as undergrad doesn’t mean you’d get into their grad school. What you need are good grades and CONNECTION.
I’m not sure if you want to go MS or PhD. But It’s easier to get into PhD programs because then professors have enough time to teach you stuff and get some work out of you. With MS, it’s pretty hard to get into unless the professor has some short-term project for you or you know the professor really well.
Looks like there are two things you need to consider. Money and connections. As for the money, you don’t need to worry about tuition if you’re going to go PhD. Most doctorate students have their tuition waived working as RA or TA, and I think you earn enough money to make a living (“surviving”) as well. So basically, don’t worry about saving up enough money for grad school. As for the connection, it would definitely be advantageous for you to be near MIT professors and leave a good impression as a student (or do an undergrad research for them). However, just because you’re at Georgia Tech doesn’t mean you can’t build a relationship with MIT professors. As long as you have good grades and relevant interests/experience, they’d take you in. All you need to do is build that connection (email, phone call) before you apply to the school and have the professor “sponsor” you. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! Don’t just blindly apply. Know what professor you want to work for and contact them before you apply! You may not have good grades, but if the professor’s willing to take you in and give you a position in his/her lab, you have MUCH (and I mean VERY MUCH) higher chance of getting accepted.</p>

<p>I’ll wrap it up. MIT or Georgia Tech, it doesn’t really matter. At Georgia Tech, you can save a lot of money. At MIT, you have better chance of building that connection. But in my personal opinion, it’s better to save your money. Go to Georgia Tech, gain a lot of experience. Do some undergrad research, join a formula club, do stuff (INTERSHIP, CO-OP!!!) Once you know where you want to go with your career and what kind of research you want to do, look at what the professors at Georgia Tech, MIT, and other schools are doing. It’s very possible that professors are not doing what you want to do at MIT, but a very prestigious professor at Georgia Tech (or other school) is doing exactly what you want to do. You want to go to MIT now, but why? Because it’s prestigious? Don’t do that. Know what you want to do with your life, think about your career. Yes, getting a degree from a prestigious institution is pretty important, but it’s also very important that your experiences match with what you want to do with the rest of your life.</p>

<p>As for me, I’m in M.Eng program. It’s a one year masters program, focusing on real world problem solving, projects, leadership, and entrepreneurship instead of research. I chose this program because it’s short, it teaches what I want to learn, and I intend to jump into the industry ASAP. Also I decided that getting a PhD (focusing on one VERY specific field of engineering) isn’t going to help my career very much. I’ve been hunting for a job for some time now, and I see that I was right. Getting a PhD is good if you want to continue doing research, but if you want to build stuff and design stuff, master’s degree is more than adequate (PhD would only “over-qualify” you.)</p>

<p>Contact me at <a href=“mailto:wchoi41@berkeley.edu”>wchoi41@berkeley.edu</a> if you have any questions.</p>